Tag Archives: decline

In the Weed(s) with Generation Z

22 Monday Apr 2019

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I have little doubt that the underlying premise of this article is correct: Generation Z is going to smoke a lot of dope.

America’s Generation Z is coming of age in a whole new world of weed.

This large cohort, which already has big-time spending power as the oldest age into high school and college, is formulating its consumption habits at a time when marijuana muscles into the mainstream. Unlike their Gen X or Boomer parents, Gen Z shoppers have only known a time where cannabis is edging toward acceptance, with California voting to legalize medical use in 1996—a year before even the oldest Gen Z consumers were born.

“They’re growing up in a world where cannabis is completely normal,” said Anna Duckworth, co-founder and chief content officer of Miss Grass, an online cannabis accessories shop and publication based in Los Angeles. “Everybody will know how to roll a joint and there won’t be any shame talking about it.”

It’s things like those steady paychecks (enjoy them, now), the laziness of the stoners (real), and the psychotic-inducement of ultra-high cannabis (real) that give pause for concern.

Having seen maybe a little more of this cohort than I’d like, I’m beginning to have serious reservations about them as a group. Rather than being the class that returns to American roots, they may well be the most Amerikan generation ever. If that’s true, then maybe they should toke it up.

The Red Badge of Merit

18 Thursday Apr 2019

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Again, with the Vox Day business, here. Vox pointed out a disturbing (but fitting) trend in the new and worsening Amerika:

‘There are really two opposing schools, I guess you could say that there’s one that’s on the side of progressive ideology, whereas the other one is more in line with the way business was always run,’ Jeremy Zogby, a partner in Zogby Strategies, told DailyMail.com. ‘There is definitely a progressive slant in Millennials and Gen Z.’

Among all Americans, 47 percent prioritized diversity in workplace hiring, while 37 percent said merit should matter most.

Just as identity politics trump ideology politics, mediocrity trumps merit in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society. Welcome to life as the Third World has always known it.

This, however, is a trend that you need not accept. Pursue excellence even as you embrace your identity.

It’s going to be a rough (possibly utility and food deprived) ride, folks. But, he’s right as usual – don’t be a part of the slide.

A Government of Illegal Men?

17 Wednesday Apr 2019

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This sad story has it all – women in combat, unchecked migration, and a rule of law as squishy as the average GOP spine.

Hernandez said it seemed cruel for ICE to inflict additional pain on the man and his daughter, noting the trauma they experienced after the death of his spouse.

“There are plenty of people you can go after but not a guy whose wife died in Afghanistan,” he said.

Vieyra was mortally wounded when insurgents attacked her unit using an improvised explosive device and rocket-propelled grenade fire in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, the Pentagon said at the time. Her unit had been sent to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Cecillia Wang, deputy legal director at the ACLU, said she could not recall a similar deportation. She said the deportation was unnecessary.

“It’s the height of cruelty for ICE to deport the father of a child whose mother died while serving in the U.S. army in Afghanistan,” Wang said. “The government can exercise its discretion not to pursue deportation against the sole remaining parent of a U.S. citizen child under these circumstances.”

I’m sure they would have shown one of us the same courtesy for, say, back taxes or inadvertently possessed bump stock.

We have no equal protection nor application. We have no law nor government. We have no common sense. We have no nation.

Tell it to the Marines?

17 Wednesday Apr 2019

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This “identity crisis” needs be quelled in a hurry.

Many of the Marine Corps‘ iconic battles such as Iwo Jima and Inchon are decades in the past, and the amphibious assaults that were once the service’s calling card seem to have fallen by the wayside in a world of artificial intelligence weaponry, cyberwarfare and the Pentagon’s strategic focus on outer space and great-power rivals such as China and Russia.

Now, an open letter to Lt. Gen. David H. Berger, the White House’s pick to become Marine Corps commandant, is fueling debate over whether the Corps is in the midst of an identity crisis that could mean tighter budgets and fewer clear missions.

While the Army and other services look to expand into cyberwarfare and other modern modes of combat, some strategists and many Marines themselves say the Corps is moving further afield from its core mission as America’s expeditionary force in combat.

They say Marines are beginning to buckle under the strain of seeking new missions and managing unconventional deployments to Eastern Europe, the North Atlantic and other places.

How about just letting the rest of the damned world take care of itself. Maybe keep the Fleet Force with the fleet and send the Expidicary Forces to the Southern border.

Cursive! Foiled Again!

16 Tuesday Apr 2019

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I’ve mentioned this terrible education trend before. Linda Shrock Taylor mentioned a long time ago. People are becoming illiterate. Part of that is due to the loss of cursive writing (and reading) skills; see what Taylor had to say about it in 2011. By the way, the kids don’t know cursive. It’s like our secret voodoo code language. To the Z’s cursive is as mystifying as that circular number thingy ticking away on the wall.

Even Carlos Slim’s Blog has noticed the problem (and possible revival).

Cursive Seemed to Go the Way of Quills and Parchment. Now It’s Coming Back.
Nearly two dozen states have reintroduced cursive instruction since 2010, when the Common Core standards dropped a requirement that it be taught in elementary schools.

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The Common Core standards seemed to spell the end of the writing style in 2010 when they dropped requirements that the skill be taught in public elementary schools, but about two dozen states have reintroduced the practice since then.

They’re concerned but they don’t know why (or much else). No mention of Taylor or her correct observation that learning cursive reinforces phonics and reading skill. They did, however, manage to find this millennial teacher in New York City … of all places:

Noelle Mapes, a third-grade teacher at a public school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, said the agenda to include cursive classes “feels like a big nostalgia move.”

“I’m a millennial teacher, so it almost feels like a boomer effort,” she said.

The practice was helpful when teaching children with occupational therapy needs or fine motor skill needs. But requiring cursive is not a good use of time, she said, especially because schools and teachers face more urgent demands.

“Add typing skills, anti-racist pedagogy, add activism skills, add digital literacy,” she said. “There are so many other things.”

Forget reading and civilization. We need to type! Because that doesn’t involve literacy in the slightest and, of course, there’s no such thing as talk-to-text, you know. Anti-racist is code for “anti-white.” Activism skills resemble idle unemployment. Digital anything is starting to sound like a world-ending sham.

I’m serious about the talk-to-text link, here. It exists, authors use it, and it stands to replace typing, as the idiots had typing replace writing. One small problem – large segments of the younger population are beginning to lose the ability to speak! Many, many most, have lost the ability to think. As an example, please refer to the above millennial teacher.

Homeschool or die.

The Faithless Nation

14 Sunday Apr 2019

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Not the best news for this Palm Sunday:

For the first time “No Religion” has topped a survey of Americans’ religious identity, according to a new analysis by a political scientist. The non-religious edged out Catholics and evangelicals in the long-running General Social Survey.

Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University and a Baptist pastor, found that 23.1% of Americans now claim no religion.

Catholics came in at 23.0%, and evangelicals were at 22.5%.

The worse news is that, out in public, one increasingly doesn’t need a survey to know of the trend.

An Even Worse Decline: “We” are Not Even “Us” Anymore

13 Saturday Apr 2019

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This fits nicely with PCR’s earlier scheduled encapsulation of the fall of our Nation. Read DeGroot’s analysis of the collapse of happiness in America, particularly among the young.

This situation has several causes, all social in nature. Marriage, friendship, religious attendance, and sex are all correlated to higher levels of happiness, and with the exception of friendship, these are in decline. Why? I think the short answer is what I will call the autonomy paradox. There are sometimes good reasons for rebelling against the mores of the past. There are sometimes good reasons for having greater individual autonomy. The trouble is that such changes tend to produce new problems, and are often averse to preserving social cohesion. We must then find ways to deal with those new problems, and to achieve greater social cohesion, nor will the past—or present!—necessarily furnish adequate means for these efforts.

“There is nothing in political liberalism or individual autonomy that can teach the sexes how to make relationships work. For that, they need tradition.”
Progress, too, has a way of producing unexpected problems and sources of unhappiness. Few people, for example, thought that contraception, no-fault divorce, or the internet would engender an instrumental approach to sex and love, and yet that is just what has happened. Increased freedom has meant increased selfishness, manipulation, and irresponsibility. Eros is a free-for-all, with the relations of men and women, in their bewildering autonomy, more and more resembling those of gay male culture. And though there are many people who want more from sex and love, not all of them know how to get it.

According to Wilcox and Stone, the primary cause of declining happiness among the young is less sex:

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Read the whole piece at Taki’s Mag.

As THE POPE wrote recently, the sexual revolution has helped in a host of depravity. It’s also led to less actual healthy sex. So it is with social media mania – for all the instant connections, we really couldn’t be more isolated.

Progress?

A Great American Reflects on a Great Demise

13 Saturday Apr 2019

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PCR on the America we lost.

The America in which I grew up and lived my early adult life was a nation. Over the course of my life I have watched my country turn into a Tower of Babel. Homogeneity and shared values permitted us to understand one another. This doesn’t mean that there was uniformity or that things were perfect. A Baptist wasn’t a Catholic. A WASP was not a black laborer. A female was not a male. Blacks and poor whites had a hard time becoming middle class, but it could be done. It was possible for middle class people to become “well off,” but difficult to become rich. Immigration was controlled, and the reduction of inflows had helped the Irish and Italians to integrate into society.

Police were helpful and didn’t burst into homes with guns blazing or rough you up on traffic stops. On important issues, compromises could be reached and reforms implemented. English was the language. If you telephoned a service provider, utility, or bank, you quickly were connected to a real person capable of handling every aspect of whatever you were calling about. Today you wait through the Spanish language option for the robo-voice listing the options that might have something to do with the reason for your call. The companies save money and make profits by imposing their service costs on customers.

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Is this place still a nation, when we can’t even stick with the plain definition of important words?

UPDATE: I almost ran with this last night. Thanks to VD for further insights. Another thing we lost – safety at the mall.

No, Real Men Do Not Dress Like or Act Like Women

10 Wednesday Apr 2019

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Irrespective of WSJ speculation and what goes on at the mall.

Jason Momoa, Hollywood’s shaggy-haired He-man, wasn’t up for an Oscar this year, but he did notch a very different sort of honor at this February’s Academy Awards: most talked-about male scrunchie. And not just any scrunchie but a custom pink-velvet Fendi affair to match his pink-velvet tuxedo. On Mr. Momoa’s YouTube channel, he noted that his entire pink Oscars outfit was inspired by a different pink scrunchie that was lent to him by a hairdresser on the set of his upcoming Apple TV show. “I freaked out ’cause it was beautiful,” said Mr. Momoa of discovering that initial salmon-colored accessory.

Mr. Momoa is just one of Hollywood’s many male stars who reflect the trend of men’s growing their hair long. (others in this club include Bradley Cooper, Timothée Chalamet and Dev Patel). And with long hair comes the need to pull it back from time to time. Like during workouts. Or sweaty awards ceremonies. Although the company doesn’t have specific statistics on male shoppers, Ellen Slicklen, the SVP and general manager of Conair and Scünci (known for its colorful hair ties) has seen an anecdotal uptick in male shoppers with flowing locks. “We’re finding that they’re using not only hair ties, not only our skinny headbands, but they’re using scrunchies now because they’re comfortable,” said Ms. Slicklen, who added that her 19-year-old son has recently let his hair grow out. “It is a trend,” she said.

Some men look good and manly with long hair. But, this new trend isn’t about channeling the inner Boromir. It’s about metrosexual androgyny; the look fits the new feel and disposition. It’s all dyscivilizational.

As I may mention in this week’s TPC bit (haven’t started it yet), if you’re out in public in any American city, you’ll find the scrunchy-wearing, purse-toting, swishy male masses. For fun, ask one of them if “he” is carrying a handkerchief or a pocket knife. Ask “him” if he could bench press a pocket knife. Actually, don’t. The scrunchies are depressing enough.

More Decline, Cultural, Moral, Etc.

06 Saturday Apr 2019

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The Daily Mail posts some hard numbers and asks an honest question:

Is America becoming Godless? The number of people who have no religion has risen

  • 266 per cent – one third of the population – in three decades
  • People with no religion accounted for 23.1% of the U.S. population in 2018
  • By comparison, Catholics make up 23% and Evangelicals account for 22.5%
  • The three are now statistically tied as the largest religious groups in America
  • Meanwhile, mainline Protestant Christianity has seen a 62.5% decline in believers since 1982, to now account for just 10.8% of the U.S. population

Well, looks like it. And, why are people leaving those “churches?” Maybe it’s because those institutions shun God and His Word in favor of stuff like this:

Dispensationalism first gained a footing through the teachings of John Nelson Darby (1800–82) who strongly influenced the Plymouth Brethren of the 1830s in Ireland and England. According to this teaching, there are (up to) seven ages in the history of man and his relationship to God.

We are currently in the second-to-last age, the time of Grace – the period from the Cross to the Rapture of the Church. The final dispensation will follow: the Millennial Kingdom – A 1000 year reign of Christ on earth, centered in Jerusalem. This dispensation ends with God’s judgment on the final rebellion.

Dispensationalism rejects the notion of supersessionism, still considers the Jewish people as God’s chosen people, and some see the modern State of Israel as resulting in the Israel who will receive the fulfillment of all God’s Old Testament promises.

This view is no longer limited to the small sect that is the Plymouth Brethren. This idea is widely accepted in U.S. Protestant churches, with well-known figures such as John Hagee and Pat Robertson leading the charge.

Around the same time as this dispensationalist idea was being developed, there separately came a desire to restore a Jewish state. Dispensationalism was going nowhere until it met up with this Zionist desire. It was when these two met and wed that the heresy took firm root and gained ever-wider acceptance.

In walks Cyrus Scofield. Who was he?

All that is little different, and no better than the secular good news of the world evil pushed by Satan’s globalists. Meet the new, hip, cool Deep State favorite, Pete O’Butt…something.

“I’m reluctant to comment on another person’s faith, but I would say it is hard to look at this president’s actions and believe that they’re the actions of somebody who believes in God,” Buttigieg said.

“I just don’t understand how you can be as worshipful of your own self as he is and be prepared to humble yourself before God. I’ve never seen him humble himself before anyone. And the exaltation of yourself, especially a self that’s about wealth and power, could not be more at odds with at least my understanding of the teachings of the Christian faith,” he added.

Some people, more than a few think this character, not abstaining per St. Paul’s admonishments, is a worthy moral leader. Really. And, he is … just as the Pedo Qweens are good moral leaders for our children.

According to the investigation by MassResistance, which compiled records, a Houstonian by the name of William Travis Dees was incarcerated and listed as a high risk sex offender in 2004 after he abused multiple children.

Dees is now a member of the Space City Sisters, the group claims, a drag queen organization which conducts Drag Queen Story Hour for children at the Houston Public Library.

After months of investigation, MassResistance said they have been able to identify Dees as a Space City Sister who has multiple aliases.

Space City Sissies sounds like the band that might perform at your local Rock ‘n Roll, Cotton Candy, Feel Good, Mega Church. You know, where everyone! is welcome. Everyone except Jesus.